This garden celebrates the role of women in the developing world and highlights some of the challenges they continue to face. It depicts a journey from bleak to blossoming, merging dry arid with lush tropical planting, all creatively assembled to represent some of the inequalities that women endure, and the efforts they are making to improve their lives and the lives of their families and communities. This garden represents women’s present and future story, by utilising the symbol of a pathway. While the tall posts holding large produce-filled baskets remind us of the traditional image of head-carrying women, they also serve to acknowledge the strength and resilience of women. The crops, the well and the seating area demonstrate how more and more women are taking on leadership roles within their own families and communities to progress change. The divide between the arid and lush planting is depicted by a barrier slicing across the pathway. This alludes both to some of the barriers to progress and to GOAL’s interventions which assist change. The goal, or desired result, is a garden culminating in an intimate, relaxed and secluded area that highlights the challenges, the momentum and the opportunities that exist for women in developing countries. The overall message of the garden is that by working together, we can envision a time where there are no limits to what women can achieve in the developing world and the role they can play in society.
Cornelia Raftery
After studying product design at Dublin’s National College of Art & Design, Cornelia worked in London as a product and exhibition designer. She returned to Ireland in 2001 and now lives in Harold’s Cross, Dublin with her family. Having always been a keen gardener with a strong interest in creating well designed outdoor spaces, Cornelia decided to follow her dream of becoming a landscape architect and has worked on a variety of projects from small private gardens to public parks, community regeneration schemes and large scale corporate projects. She is a registered member of the GLDA, the Irish Landscape Institute and the Teaching Council of Ireland. Cornelia has tutored at University level and is currently a tutor at the Garden Design Academy of Ireland. This is her first show garden at Bloom.
